The present invention relates generally to wireless communication networks, and more particularly to rechargeable battery facilitated customer-premises equipment (CPE) for improving uplink transmission power management.
A typical wireless communication network is comprised of at least one base transceiver station (BTS) that transmits and receives signals to and from one or more CPE devices via wireless links. The BTS is designed to carry out functions, such as signal transmission/reception and channel resource allocation. The CPE device generally refers to any electronic apparatus located in a user's premise for connecting to the BTS via wireless channels within a wireless communication network. Examples of CPE include telephones, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) modems, cable modems, cellular phones, set-top boxes and routers.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional CPE device 100 that is connected to a BTS 150 via uplink channels. The CPE device 100 is connected to a power supply 102 for receiving power at a voltage level Pin. The power supply 102 can be, for example, a regular DC power line of an AC adaptor, a universal serial bus (USB) cable, and a battery that outputs relatively constant voltage. The power supply 102 provides the CPE device 100 with power Pin, such that a transmitter 104 implemented within the CPE device 100 can transmit signals to the BTS 150 at power level Pul via uplink channels. In some cases, the power level Pul required for the transmitter 104 to transmit uplink signals to the BST exceeds the power level Pin from the power supply 102, thereby resulting in low quality or failure of communications.
As such, what is needed is a CPE device that is able to transmit uplink signals with sufficient power to ensure quality and reliability of signal transmission in a wireless communication network.